The Sunday Salon...and Did You Ever Hear About "The Women"?

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the place where Book Bloggers from around the world share their bookish finds with one another in a virtual place called The Sunday Salon. Thank you to for Deb at ReaderBuzz keeping us all together on Sundays and hosting The Sunday Salon now! I also visited with Kim at The Caffeinated Reader, another Sunday gathering place for us bookish people called The Sunday Post ! It's been a while since I've shared a book or two. I have been reading and busier than ever since retiring, but I need to get back here... I miss sharing all the great reads I've been enjoying! So, this week, I wanted to share something recommended to me during a recent visit to the Vietnam Veterans display of The Wall that Heals...

This week, in my little town, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, The Wall That Heals came... displayed in a field, in beautiful farm land, not too far from where I live. The Wall That Heals is a replica of the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial that is in Washington, DC. It also is an educational center as the trailer that brings in the memorial is turned into a learning experience with displays and information that brings what the Vietnam Veteran's experienced to life.

Even though this is a 3/4 replica of the original memorial in DC, it still has the power to move anyone who sees it. The over 58,000 names displayed is enough to silence the room, but seeing how the Veterans who visit are moved by their visit, brought tears to my eyes. 

One of the facts I learned during my visit to The Wall was that there are only 8 women whose names appear on The Wall. These 8 women were all nurses that died while serving in the Vietnam war. And on the day I visited The Wall, I sought out these women to see their names among the many. I had their names and their locations on the wall. As I stood in front of one of the panels I was approached by one of the Veteran volunteers. He asked me if I had any questions, and if I'd like to do a rubbing of any of the names on the wall. I explained to him, that I did not have any relatives engraved on the wall, but that I was amazed how there were only 8 women on the wall. We got to talking about those women and their histories. He shared his story with me, and I thanked him for his service and told him I was glad that he was able to come home and glad he was okay. "Okay is a relative word" he tells me. And I understood what he meant without further explanation... but then a strange thing happened. This Vietnam Vet, a man in his 70's, tells me if I am interested in these women, I should read, The Women by Kristin Hannah. He went on to tell me, that even though it is fiction, it really tells the story, the experience, of one woman during her time in Vietnam. He originally picked the book up because of the cover, which shows a helicopter flying over palm trees. He read it because of it's story... Here is the blurb about the book found on Goodreads...

Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided. Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost. But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

You can learn more about The Wall That Heals at Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. You can learn more about the women "on the wall" by clicking on this link.

Have you read any books about the Vietnam War? 

Fiction or Nonfiction?

The Women by Kristin Hannah was published by St. Martins Press February of 2024. You can listen to an excerpt on the publishers page.

Summer time is coming and reading is heating up along with the weather in South Carolina. I'm looking forward to sharing some great reads...

Happy reading... Suzanne

Memoir Monday... or rather Ironing out the Truths of History

The Wager, A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann... On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is on all the Buzz lists. Descriptions like Masterful, a Tour de Force, Incredible have all been used to describe it. Although not a Memoir, the base of its' essence is memoirs. The diaries and journals David Grann could find to lay out all the players and their accounts of the HMS Wager and what happened to the ship and its' crew. Years of research. It sounds so interesting to me. And I am also curious as to the different accounts of what happened. Published by Doubleday ( and found on the Penguin Randomhouse website), The Wager is available at your favorite bookstore! 

It's a THRILLING Sunday... or The Sunday Salon and Thrillers coming soon to a book store near you

 

Welcome to The Sunday Salon and a beautiful (but cold) day in South Carolina! Pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of java and let's talk books...

The first books I remember reading as a young person were mysteries. I read a Nancy Drew mystery almost every Sunday afternoon. I couldn't get enough of them and I loved reading. And that's where my reading origins are from... mysteries. As an adult my reading took a little turn to some chic lit, with reading books like Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding and Jennifer Wiener's Good in Bed. And after I invited my reader friends to form a reading group, my choices became literary fiction, because that's what reading groups read. But I still occasionally read mysteries and thrillers, and with some new books coming out this November and a little later, I think it's time to get back to my roots...

One of the mystery/thrill writers I LOVED for so long was Patricia Cornwell. After discovering her first book Postmortem, I read her books voraciously, one after the other until I had to wait for new ones to be published. Then she started writing a different series of books with new characters along side her writing the Scarpetta stories and I thought she lost a bit of her shine. I wasn't thrilled with her stories like I once was and put her books down around book 11 of the Kay Scarpetta novels... but I missed her. And now after reading that she is going to be publishing a new Kay Scarpetta novel I am excited to visit my old friend. I think maybe I should catch up to where the story has been up until now, but can I really read thru 13 books until I get to book #25, Autopsy? I think not...

Autopsy by Patricia Cornwell... Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has come almost full circle, returning to Virginia as the chief medical examiner, the state where she launched her storied career. Finding herself the new girl in town once again after being away for many years, she’s inherited not only an overbearing secretary, but also a legacy of neglect and potential corruption.

She and her husband Benton Wesley, now a forensic psychologist with the U.S. Secret Service, have relocated to Old Town Alexandria where she’s headquartered five miles from the Pentagon in a post-pandemic world that’s been torn by civil and political unrest. Just weeks on the job, she’s called to a scene by railroad tracks where a woman’s body has been shockingly displayed, her throat cut down to the spine, and as Scarpetta begins to follow the trail, it leads unnervingly close to her own historic neighborhood.

At the same time, a catastrophe occurs in a top-secret laboratory in outer space, endangering at least two scientists aboard. Appointed to the highly classified Doomsday Commission that specializes in sensitive national security cases, Scarpetta is summoned to the White House and tasked with finding out exactly what happened. But even as she works the first potential crime scene in space remotely, an apparent serial killer strikes again very close to home. 

Will be published by William Morrow and on bookstore shelves November 30th! This is one I'm really looking forward to!

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Every year my Mother comes for a visit to South Carolina from Connecticut. She's a reader too and usually she'll be tackling some reading while she is here. This year she decided not to bring anything or go out to the bookstore, but to pull something off my shelves. As you can imagine, I have a lot of books. I knew she liked mysteries and thrillers, so I pulled out The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. I actually had not read it yet. There was a signed first edition just sitting on the shelves... Mom enjoyed it and I had to not ask questions as she was enjoying the read so as not to ruin the fun for me because now I was putting it next on my reading list. What was perfect was I heard about Anthony Horowitz coming out with a followup to The Magpie Murders! Book 2 in the series...

The Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz... Ryeland is living the good life. She is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend Andreas. It should be everything she's always wanted. But is it? She's exhausted with the responsibilities of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, and truth be told she's beginning to miss London.

And then the Trehearnes come to stay. The strange and mysterious story they tell, about an unfortunate murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married—a picturesque inn on the Suffolk coast named Farlingaye Hall—fascinates Susan and piques her editor’s instincts. 

One of her former writers, the late Alan Conway, author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew the murder victim—an advertising executive named Frank Parris—and once visited Farlingaye Hall. Conway based the third book in his detective series, Atticus Pund Takes the Cake, on that very crime. 

The Trehearne’s, daughter, Cecily, read Conway’s mystery and believed the book proves that the man convicted of Parris’s murder—a Romanian immigrant who was the hotel’s handyman—is innocent. When the Trehearnes reveal that Cecily is now missing, Susan knows that she must return to England and find out what really happened.

Brilliantly clever, relentlessly suspenseful, full of twists that will keep readers guessing with each revelation and clue, Moonflower Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction from one of its greatest masterminds, Anthony Horowitz. 

Published by Harper Publishing, this came out Nov. 10th!

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And our last thriller is from an author I've never read, but has gotten a lot of buzz for the books that he's written. He's been up for numerous literary awards, been on the NY Times Bestseller list and has a band. His book that got my attention is not his soon to be published one, but one of his older books, Universal Harvester.                                         

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle... It’s the late ’90s, and you can find Jeremy Heldt at the Video Hut in Nevada, Iowa—a small town in the center of the state. The job is good enough for Jeremy, quiet and predictable, and it gets him out of the house, where he lives with his dad and where they both try to avoid missing Mom, who died six years ago in a carwreck. But when a local school teacher comes in to return her copy of Targets—an old movie, starring Boris Karloff—the transaction jolts Jeremy out of his routine. “There’s something on it,” she says as she leaves the store, though she doesn’t elaborate. Two days later, another customer returns another tape, and registers the same odd complaint: “There’s another movie on this tape.”

In Universal Harvester, the once-placid Iowa fields and farmhouses become sinister, imbued with loss and instability and foreboding. As Jeremy and those around him are absorbed into tapes, they become part of another story—one that unfolds years into the past and years into the future, part of an impossible search for something someone once lost that they would do anything to regain.

It's a slim book coming in at 224 pages, but it is sitting on my nightstand waiting for its' turn to be opened and read. I think the premise is interesting and I am looking forward to seeing if John Darnielle's writing lives up to all the hype. Universal Harverster was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2017.

He has a new book coming out January 2022 called The Devil House that also looks interesting.

Do you read mysteries and thrillers?

What books have you been reading lately? And have your reading tastes changed over the years? For now, I'm jumping back to my "roots" with mysteries and thrillers. Hope you found something interesting here today!

Happy reading... Suzanne

Memoir Monday...

When I Grow Up by Ken Krimstein... New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein’s new graphic nonfiction book, based on six of hundreds of newly discovered, never-before-published autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish teens on the brink of WWII―found in 2017 hidden in a Lithuanian church cellar.

These autobiographies, long thought destroyed by the Nazis, were written as entries for three competitions held in Eastern Europe in the 1930s, just before the horror of the Holocaust forever altered the lives of the young people who wrote them.

Collected in three contests sponsored by *YIVO in the 1930s, they were part of the institute’s drive to gather information about the everyday lives of Jewish adolescents amid political and economic turmoil. Young people of all education, class, occupation and political affiliation were asked to write about themselves, their families and their relationship with them, their teachers and schools, boyfriends and girlfriends and youth and political organizations. The stories were anonymous — the authors submitted their names separately for the purpose of the prizes — and they were urged not to embellish

In When I Grow Up, Krimstein shows us the stories of these six young men and women in riveting, almost cinematic narratives, full of humor, yearning, ambition, and all the angst of the teenage years. It’s as if half a dozen new Anne Frank stories have suddenly come to light, framed by the dramatic story of the documents’ rediscovery.

Beautifully illustrated, heart-wrenching, and bursting with life, When I Grow Up reveals how the tragedy that is about to befall these young people could easily happen again, to any of us, if we don’t learn to listen to the voices from the past.

This work by Ken Krimstein has gotten a lot of buzz. It's interesting that a graphic novel is what was chosen to bring these stories to life, but this form may make these stories more accessible. I look forward to reading this, but am not sure if I will be able to enjoy the life they are sharing with the knowledge of what was to come. With the essays being submitted anonymously, but their names still recorded, I wonder if we will find out what ultimately happens to these young people. Or maybe we aren't suppose to find out, but feel the connection of these essays to our own youth.

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing and in bookstores tomorrow, November 16th.

*YIVO, acronym for Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institute in Vilnus, or the INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. 

Mailbox Monday

In My Mailbox... I've received some wonderful books last week! And I decided I would join in on the fun sharing them with you and the other bloggers participating in Mailbox Monday!


Mailbox Monday is a weekly event for bloggers to share what books arrived in their mailboxes. Mailbox Monday was originally created by Marcia of To Be Continued and is now hosted by Vicki, Serena and Leslie at Mailbox Monday's own blog.

3 Books came in the mail and more for my eReader, which is filled to capacity now! First, I am so excited about receiving Mingmei Yip's latest book, The Witch's Market. She is an amazing writer, who mixes her knowledge of Chinese folklore with her enthralling storytelling. I have enjoyed every one of her books. They all have pulled me in completely with their wonderful plots. Thank you, Mingmei for sending it along! I'm also interested to read Jill McCroskey Coupe's first novel, true stories at the smoky view. And, Opening Belle by Maureen Sherry looks like it's going to be a fun read, with a bit of that tongue in cheek humor that I enjoy from time to time! Then the eGalley's filling my eReader are filling the internet with a lot of buzz, the new books by Chris Cleave and Chris Bohjalian have been highly anticipated and both look like they will not disappoint us. Mermaid Moon by Colleen Cable and Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom both had a lot of great press. And Here are the blurbs of those books and links to their full descriptions...

The Books:

The Witch's Market by Mingmei Yip
a beautifully written novel of self-discovery and intrigue. Chinese-American assistant professor Eileen Chen specializes in folk religion at her San Francisco college. Though her grandmother made her living as a shamaness, Eileen publicly dismisses witchcraft as mere superstition. Yet privately, the subject intrigues her.

true stories at the smoky view by Jill McCroskey Coupe
After attending the funeral of her estranged friend Skip in Knoxville, Tennessee, Vrai (short for Vraiment), a forty-something art history librarian with sons of her own, rescues ten-year-old Jonathan, who has been abandoned with no shoes in the funeral home parking lot. The Blizzard of 1993 strands this unlikely duo at the Smoky View Motel, where, motivated in part by the unsolved murders of Jonathan s parents, they begin to uncover the truth about Skip s death.

Opening Belle by Maureen Sherry
A whip-smart and funny novel told by a former Wall Street insider who reveals what it’s like for a working woman to balance love, ambition, and family in a world of glamorous excess, outrageous risk-taking, and jaw-dropping sexism.

eGalley's:

Mermaid Moon by Colleen Cable
Mallory's mother died fifteen years ago. But her father's last words on the phone were     unmistakable: “Find . . . mother.”

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
A spellbinding novel about three unforgettable individuals thrown together by war, love, and their search for belonging in the ever-changing landscape of WWII London.

The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
The spellbinding tale of a party gone horribly wrong: two men lie dead in a suburban living room, two women are on the run from police, and a marriage is ripping apart at the seams.

Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom
The continued story (from The Kitchen House) of Jamie Pyke, son of both a slave and master of Tall Oakes, whose deadly secret compels him to take a treacherous journey through the Underground Railroad.

Hope you found something interesting here! I'll be reading and reviewing these books soon, so stop back to see what I thought. In the meantime, check out what other bloggers have received in their mailboxes at the Mailbox Monday blog!

Best Books and New Books…

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the day of the week we devote to talking books! So, pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of Joe and get comfy! Let's talk books……

It's the beginning of a new reading year! I'm looking forward to some great books coming our way and I'm looking forward to some great books I missed during the year too! At the end of the year there are many, many "best of…" lists, and on those many lists I hunted down, there were three books I saw over and over. So, today let's take a peek at those books that stood out among all those lists, a few books I think should have made those lists, and a couple of books you're going to want to read that are new for 2015…

On those lists…

All The Light We Cannont See by Anthony Doerr… a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.  Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

I talked about this way back in a March Sunday Salon  and it is clearly the stand out hit of 2014. A book club favorite as well as a great book for people who love that WWII time frame. I didn't get a chance to read this one yet, but it is going to the top of the list.
                                      
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The Martian by Andy Weir… Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first... Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Another book that has gotten rave reviews and is slated for the big screen this year. Adventure and survival at the harshest odds.

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This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki…Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. One of the local teens - just a couple of years older than Rose and Windy - is caught up in something bad... Something life threatening. It's a summer of secrets, and sorrow, and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! One of my favorite reads this year and I am so glad it's gotten the praise it deserves. Beautifully drawn, tender writing, just a great BFF book. Here's my REVIEW.

Where are THESE books on those lists?! 2 of my favorites...

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan… The improbable love story of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny. At the age of thirty-five, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium—with her three children and nanny in tow—to study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires.  Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists’ colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated “belle Americaine.” 

I LOVED THIS BOOK too! The romance between Robert and Fanny was so special and Nancy Horan is the writer who knows how to whisk you away into the pages of one of her books without you ever wanting to leave. Here's my REVIEW. Read this Book!

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A Sudden Light by Garth Stein… In the summer of 1990, fourteen-year-old Trevor Riddell gets his first glimpse of Riddell House. Built from the spoils of a massive timber fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of giant whole trees and is set on a huge estate overlooking Seattle’s Puget Sound. Trevor’s bankrupt parents have begun a trial separation, and his father, Jones Riddell, has brought Trevor to Riddell House with a goal: to join forces with his sister, Serena, dispatch the ailing and elderly Grandpa Samuel to a nursing home, sell off the house and property for development, divide up the profits, and live happily ever after. But as Trevor explores the house’s secret stairways and hidden rooms, he discovers a spirit lingering in Riddell House whose agenda is at odds with the family plan. Only Trevor’s willingness to face the dark past of his forefathers will reveal the key to his family’s future.

Garth Stein is a master storyteller! He captured my attention and I couldn't read this fast enough. Here's my REVIEW. Another book for your TBR pile if you missed it!

Books to Look Forward to This Year…

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion… The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Rosie Project, starring the same extraordinary couple now living in New York and unexpectedly expecting their first child. Get ready to fall in love all over again. Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge because— surprise!—Rosie is pregnant.  Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he’s left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie.  As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia to reconcile, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business, and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him the most. 

Another charming story of Don and Rosie. This actually was published Dec. 30th, but I'm counting it as a 2015 reading selection. Their friends are back, their love is being tested, and if you enjoyed the first book, The Rosie Effect, you're going to want to read the sequel of Don and Rosie make three! I started reading a sample of this and felt right at home.
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The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins… Intersecting, overlapping, not-quite-what-they-seem lives. Jealousies and betrayals and wounded hearts. A haunting unease that clutches and won’t let go. All this and more helps propel Paula Hawkins’s addictive debut into a new stratum of the psychological thriller genre. At times, I couldn’t help but think: Hitchcockian. From the opening line, the reader knows what they’re in for: “She’s buried beneath a silver birch tree, down towards the old train tracks…” But Hawkins teases out the mystery with a veteran’s finesse. The “girl on the train” is Rachel, who commutes into London and back each day, rolling past the backyard of a happy-looking couple she names Jess and Jason. Then one day Rachel sees “Jess” kissing another man. The day after that, Jess goes missing. The story is told from three character’s not-to-be-trusted perspectives: Rachel, who mourns the loss of her former life with the help of canned gin and tonics; Megan (aka Jess); and Anna, Rachel’s ex-husband’s wife, who happens to be Jess/Megan’s neighbor. Rachel’s voyeuristic yearning for the seemingly idyllic life of Jess and Jason lures her closer and closer to the investigation into Jess/Megan’s disappearance, and closer to a deeper understanding of who she really is. And who she isn’t.

Oh, this sounds so intriguing! Lots of great reviews for this already! Let's see if the story lives up to the hype and hop on the train! On my wish list!

What were you're favorite reads in 2014?! And what are you looking forward to reading this year? Hope you found a couple of great reads here today, and next week back to the basics… great books with buzz!

Happy reading… Suzanne

The Sunday Salon and Spring Ahead with Great New Books

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's that time of the week to relax, find a comfy chair and talk books. So grab a cup of joe and lets chat about books!

It's been crazy cold & snowing like anything in Connecticut the past few weeks, and I'm really over winter now! Spring can't come soon enough for me or soon enough for some great books! So, I thought I would leave the snow & cold behind today and look towards some great books coming this Spring…

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler…Welcome to Little Wing. It’s a place like hundreds of others, nothing special, really. But for four friends—all born and raised in this small Wisconsin town—it is home. And now they are men, coming into their own, or struggling to do so. One of them never left, still working the family farm that has been tilled for generations. But others felt the need to move on, with varying degrees of success. One trades commodities, another took to the rodeo circuit, and one of them even hit it big as a rock star. And then there’s Beth, a woman who has meant something special in each of their lives. Now all four are brought together for a wedding. Little Wing seems even smaller than before. While lifelong bonds are still strong, there are stresses—between the friends, between husbands and wives. There will be heartbreak, but there will also be hope, healing, even heroism as these memorable people learn the true meaning of adult friendship and love.

Seldom has the American heartland been so richly and accurately portrayed. Though the town may have changed, the one thing that hasn’t is the beauty of the Wisconsin farmland, the lure of which emerges as a vibrant character in the story.

This book is betting plenty of positive buzz from the publishing industry. It sounds like a wonderful story of friendship with a wonderful backdrop. A kind of book you can sit back and relax to read, but something you should still be able to sink your teeth in. I have not been able to read any excerpts, so I'm not sure about the writing, but I'm putting this on my tbr list anyway. Shotgun Lovesongs is being published by Thomas Dunne Books and is coming out March 11, 2014.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr… Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie- Laure’s converge.

This book has gotten amazing pre publishing praise! The word is that the "imagery is stunning", and the writing is "moving". Anthony Doerr certainly put his time in with investing 10 years to write this novel. This time period has produced some amazing fiction, including The Book Thief, and if all the hype is true, I think this is going to be a must read this year. Sounds like a potential great book club read too. All The Light We Cannot See is being published by Scribner and pub date of May 6, 2014. On my TBR list now.

The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff…  Deshi, a hapless young man living in northern China, is suddenly expelled from ordinary life when his brother dies in an accident. Holding Deshi responsible for his brother’s death, his parents send him on a mission to acquire a corpse bride to accompany his brother into the afterlife, in accordance with an ancient Chinese tradition that has many modern adherents. Eligible dead girls are in short supply, however. When Deshi falls into company with a young--and single--woman named Lily, he sees a solution to his problems. The only hitch is that willful, tart-tongued Lily is still very much alive. As Deshi and Lily adventure through a breathtaking mountain landscape, meeting a host of eccentric characters and dangerous adversaries along the way, Deshi just can’t decide whether to kiss the girl or to kill her.

This is a graphic novel coming out of First Second Books, and that alone piques me interest because the last two graphic novels I have really enjoyed have been published by them (Sailor Twain, Relish).  The combination of Chinese folklore and what appears to be a fun adventure should make this a good graphic novel. The sample of the artwork for The Undertaking of Lily Chen, did not blow me away, but I'm counting on the story to make up for that. Publication date is March 25th, 2014. On my wish list.

Weekly Recap… Anniversary week saw 2 giveaways and a book review! …

*Congrats to Heather C. for winning the Happy Blogoversary giveaway of ANY book I reviewed over the past 4 years! Heather chose to receive a copy of Dark Witch by Nora Roberts, the first in her Nora Roberts newest trilogy set in Ireland with family curses, witches and as always a nice touch of romance.

*Congrats to Linda K. for winning a copy of the Audiobook Love & War by Mary Matalin and James Carville during the Memoir Monday blogoversary giveaway. A great book that goes beyond politics and policies to a story of love, kids and trying to remain sane in a Washington, DC existence.

*My review for Love & War by Mary Matalin and James Carville was posted for Memoir Monday, February 17th. I really enjoyed their story and their reading alternate sections was wonderful.

Personal Update… Last week was a busy one for me as I endured physical therapy 3 times a week, plus a rigorous regime at home. Whew! I'm out of the wheelchair and learning to walk with the aid of a walker. My arms will probably look like Hulk Hogans until I build up the strength in my legs! But I have a nice pile of books now to catch up with! INCLUDING a wonderful little book form Little, Brown and Company called Black Lake by Johanna Lane. Watch out for a review of this little gem next week- it was a wonderful surprise when I found it in the mail and it was even more wonderful as I opened it up to get a feel for it and could not put it down.

So, how was your reading week?! Any books you're looking forward to this Spring?! Share what you've found, I'd love to hear about them all!

Happy reading… Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... And Crashes in Your Reading Life

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake...

Some of you out there know that a little while back I was in a pretty serious car accident. A teenager on his way home from school decided to run a stop sign, going so fast I didn't even see him when he hit me, and the rest is history. I was lucky because it could have been so much worse. I survived with cuts and big bruises and a concussion and all sorts of lumps all over, and lots of pain (still), and a leg that doesn't function anymore because my knee is torn in a zillion places, and frustration, etc. Someday, I know this will be all behind me. In the meantime, the word crash makes me cringe. SO, I thought since the "crash" is ever present in my mind these days, I'd see what kind of books I could find that had the word "crash" in them. It seems that crash can be more than a car crash...

Crash by Lisa McMann... From the back flap:
Jules lives with her family above their restaurant, which means she smells like pizza most of the time and drives their double-meatball-shaped food truck to school. It’s not a recipe for popularity, but she can handle that. What she can’t handle is the vision. Over and over, Jules sees a careening truck hit a building and explode... and nine body bags in the snow. She has no idea why this is happening to her or if she’s going crazy. It hardly matters, because the visions are everywhere--on billboards, television screens, windows--and she’s the only one who can see them. But it’s not until the vision starts coming more frequently, and revealing more clues, that Jules knows what she has to do. Because now she can see the face in one of the body bags, and it's someone she knows. Someone she’s been in love with for as long as she can remember.

I love this cover! This is a YA, that I think would appeal to the Adult Crossover crowd. The author, Lisa McMann is well known for a 2 other YA series, The Unwanteds , which is a dysptopian trilogy that sounds fantastic, and the Wake Trilogy , and has gotten rave reviews for all her writing. I like the premiss of her getting these visions and her determination to put the pieces together to make sure none of it happens. This book is available in Paperback , Kindle , or Nook!

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson... From the publisher: Weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age. In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous…you’ll recognize it immediately.

Neal Stephenson writing is sometimes referred to as a cyberpunk, or a postmodern kind of world with a good dose of technology thrown in. How can you not like a warrior prince who delivers pizza for a living?! Sci-fi fans should like this, as well as cyberpunk enthusiasts. Snow Crash dates back to some of Neal Stephenson's earlier works, this dating back to 1994, and this book has gotten great reviews! It's available in Paperback , Kindle , or Nook!

Crash and Burn by Artie Lange... from the publisher: Veteran comedian and radio personality Artie Lange turns an unflinching eye and his signature wit on his perilous descent into drug addiction, life-threatening depression, and ultimately, his recovery, in the follow-up to his hilariously raw debut, #1 New York Times bestseller Too Fat to Fish. At a high point in his career, Artie Lange played a sold-out show in Carnegie Hall and totally killed—yet during his standing ovation, all he could think of were the two bags of heroin in his pocket. In the midst of a deep, self-destructive depression, addicted to heroin and prescription drugs, he lashed out at everyone around him— from his fellow cast members on The Howard Stern Show, to celebrity guests, his longtime friends, and even his own family. By turns dark and disturbing, hilarious and heartbreaking, and always drop-dead honest, Crash and Burn lifts the curtain on Artie’s dangerous slide, and offers a new, crystal-clear window into the mind of the addict... With the help and support of friends and family, Artie claws his way back, turning his life and career around. And despite his slipups, backslides, and permanent losses, Artie forges on. With Crash and Burn, Artie Lange goes all-in, confessing a story that is as shocking as it is funny, ever tempered by his characteristic humor, self-awareness, and inimitable way with words. 

I do enjoy a good memoir, but I burned out on celebrity tell-alls a while back. BUT, Artie Lange isn't a celebrity to me, I never heard of him. His crash on drugs is a familiar one to many celebrities, but when I read an excerpt of this from Rolling Stones magazine and I was immediately drawn in to the story and the writing! His story seems fresh and human. The story of someone who has it all, but can't see that until "you only realize how big your mountain is once you're laying motionless, helpless, and hopeless in the valley below." That is Artie Lange's story. This is definitely on my reading list. Crash and Burn will be published Oct. 29th by Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster. You can pre-order the Hardcover , and it will be available for the Kindle and the Nook the same day as the hardcover!

Other Bookish news... 
*Author Alice Munro, who writes short stories, won the Noble Prize for Literature on Oct. 10th! "Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" Congratulations Alice Munro!

*Have you heard about the backlash of self-published erotica? Well, it seems that there is a sweeping attack & delete at the major eBook stores of their self-published erotica. A news report about finding "questionable" material in the self-published section even made WH Smith shut down their site entirely. You can read the full story at The Digital Reader

Chick with Books Blog News... Chick with Books is available on Kindle now! If you own a Kindle, YOU can subscribe to Chick with Books via Amazon and have the blog delivered to your Kindle automatically! You can get all the details at my Amazon Kindle Page!

The Week in Review...
On tuesday, Oct. 11th, I reviewed The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip. It was a sexy fun thrill ride through the Shanghai of the 1930's! 

On friday, Oct. 14th,  I blogged about eBook subscriptions or the "Netflixing" of the eBook industry. It's coming, and I highlighted 3 of the top choices.

On saturday, Oct. 15th, I reviewed Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel. Folklore, mystery, romance & the open sea all make for a wonderful story, that also happen's to be a graphic novel beautifully rendered in soft charcoal with hand lettering of the text. Do not miss this one even if you're new to graphic novels!

NEXT WEEK, look for an update on some great books coming out this week and next! And of course there's always bookish news.

Happy reading.... Suzanne

The Dog Days of Summer... Sunday Salon

The "Dog Days" of Summer are usually the hottest days of the year; so hot it's not fit for even a dog. It's the period of July 3rd through August 11th, when the Dog Star, Sirius, rises with the sun. It was thought that the combination of the brightest luminary of the day (the sun) and the brightest star of the night (Sirius) was responsible for the extreme heat that is experienced during that time...

Where did the summer go this year?! Already the mornings are cooler and there's just a hint of fall settling in. And I think, "Where are the Dog Days of Summer book choices?!" So before we get out of summer, let's talk about some great books when we're in a "doggish" mood!.... (BTW, that's BJ reading on the Kindle! For anyone not familiar with my little guy, here's my tribute I wrote for him last March, it really says it all!)

Unsaid by Neil Abramson... What Goodreads had to say... Unsaid explores the beauty and redemptive power of human-animal relationships and the true meaning of communication in all of its diverse forms. As a veterinarian, Helena was required to choose when to end the lives of the terminally ill animals in her care. Now that she has died, she is afraid to face them and finally admit to herself that her thirty-seven years of life were meaningless, error-ridden, and forgettable. So Helena lingers, a silent observer haunted by the life she left behind-her shattered attorney husband, David; her houseful of damaged but beloved animals; and her final project, Cindy, a chimpanzee trained to use sign language who may be able to unlock the mysteries of animal communication and consciousness.  When Cindy is scheduled for a research experiment that will undoubtedly take her life, David must call upon everything he has learned from Helena to save her. In the explosive courtroom drama that follows, all the threads of Helena's life entwine and tear as Helena and David confront their mistakes, grief, and loss and discover what it really means to be human.

I like the idea of Helena "lingering" around to see what happens after her death. I find that these type of characters usually have some great insight about what's going on in the present and are great at reflecting on their past life.

Bones Would Rain From the Sky by Suzanne Clothier... from Goodreads:  This extraordinary book takes a radical new direction in understanding our life with canines and offers us astonishing new lessons about our pets. From changing the misbehaviors and habits that upset us, to seeing the world from their unique and natural perspective, to finding a deep connection with another being, BONES WOULD RAIN FROM THE SKY will help you receive an incomparable gift: a profound, lifelong relationship with the dog you love.

BJ and I had a great relationship. I raised him from a puppy and it was love at first sight. I have always loved reading books that may offer some insight into the relationship we have with our furry companions, but I never had to really rely on any advice... There's a new furry girl in the house now. Her name is Pepper and she's my new hubby's dog. It's a little different not raising her from a puppy and her being "Daddy's Girl". She's three, smart and a pretty independent gal. We snuggle in the morning, go on walks and I love her. It's a new beginning for both of us. Maybe it's time to open up a book or two to brush up on starting a new relationship, so when I saw this book, I just had to buy it. Just like getting out of a rut with our human companions, I think sometimes we need to pay attention to our furry ones. I'll let you know about the book and how Pepper and I develop.


The Possibility Dogs by Susannah Charleson... from Goodreads: Charleson journeys into the world of psychiatric service, where dogs aid humans with disabilities that may be unseen but are no less felt. This work had a profound effect on Charleson, perhaps because, for her, this journey began as a personal one: Charleson herself struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder for months after a particularly grisly search. Collaboration with her search dog partner made the surprising difference to her own healing. Inspired by that experience, Charleson learns to identify abandoned dogs with service potential, often plucking them from shelters at the last minute, and to train them for work beside hurting partners, to whom these second-chance dogs bring intelligence, comfort, and hope.  

Along the way she comes to see canine potential everywhere, often where she least expects it – from Merlin the chocolate lab puppy with the broken tail once cast away in a garbage bag, who now stabilizes his partner’s panic attacks; to Ollie, the blind and deaf terrier, rescued moments before it was too late, who now soothes anxious children; to Jake Piper, the starving pit bull terrier mix with the wayward ears who is transformed into a working service dog and, who, for Charleson, goes from abandoned to irreplaceable.

When I read about Susannah Charleson and her work turning abandoned dogs into contributing members of the community and not only that buy saving the people they find as their forever person, I was intrigued. There is an organization that has developed after her work and the success of this book. Looks like an interesting read, and I look 

forward to  the stories of the turnaround these dogs and people make.

Survivors: The Empty City by Erin Hunter... from Goodreads: The time has come for dogs to rule the wild. Lucky is a golden-haired mutt with a nose for survival. He has always been a loner—roaming the streets of the busy city and relying on his instincts to get by. Other dogs have Packs, but Lucky doesn't long for the days he spent with his littermates. He stands alone. Then the Big Growl strikes. Suddenly the ground is split wide open. The Trap House is destroyed. And all the longpaws have disappeared. Now Lucky is trapped in a strange and desolate new world with no food, foul water, and enemies at every turn. He falls in with others left behind, including his littermate Bella, a Leashed dog. Relying on other dogs—and having them depend on him—brings new dangers that Lucky isn't prepared for, but he may not be able to survive on his own. Can Lucky ever be a true Pack dog?

OK, something a little fun here. Author Erin Hunter is known for her cats and bears, but now she creates a world for us dog lovers. Now people who are true fans of her Warrior series may find fault with some similarities between this series ( I just read some reviews), but I haven't read the Warrior series yet, and I'm hoping that the dystopian world she creates for the d0gs will capture my attention, and I'll have a fun and interesting read. I'll let you know about this too...

So, there you have this summer's Dog Day reading! Funny that what I'm reading right now has a great dog character in it... Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky! Bear is a minor character, but adds a certain dimension to the story. And what a story! OMG, I could not put this down and had to urgently read the last 20 or so pages in the wee hours of the morning to finish it because I had to know how it ended. I'm not telling, but look for my review coming this week. It was my reading groups August pick and it was a fantastic choice! 

Enough of what my picks are this week, what have you been reading?! Any "Doggish" reads to recommend?! I'd love to hear about it, and if you've read any of my choices here, let me know what YOU thought!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon and Books with Buzz

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the time of the week we talk about all things bookish. So, grab a cup of Java, pull up a chair and relax!

It's been a crazy week as I try to plan for our vacation- a road trip down South that will end up in Savannah, Ga! I have always wanted to visit Savannah ever since reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, who described it as a "hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks", and whose book was absolutely wonderful. Because of our "road trip', I was thinking of making this Sunday Salon all about "road trip" books - friends hopping in a car and heading out to parts unknown, or books about travel. But then as I started to try and figure out what books I'm going to bring with me ( and we always bring something to read, don't we?!) I thought "let's just talk about some great books that have poked their spines up for me to find in my week of travels." So no themes this week, just books that sound great and are going in my wish list...

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer...

“They say there are many worlds,” she explains. “All around our own, packed tight as the cells of your heart. Each with its own logic, its own physics, moons, and stars. … And in those other worlds, the places you love are there, the people you love are there. . . . So what if you found the door? And what if you had the key? Because everyone knows this: That the impossible happens once to each of us.”   

From the publisher... 1985. After the death of her beloved twin brother, Felix, and the break up with her long-time lover, Nathan, Greta Wells embarks on a radical psychiatric treatment to alleviate her suffocating depression. But the treatment has unexpected effects, and Greta finds herself transported to the lives she might have had if she'd been born in a different era.

Have you ever thought to yourself, "what if I was born 100 years ago, what would my life be?"What if I could go back just a little bit and meet my true love in a different era?" I LOVE time travel novels! I loved The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. It's always fascinating to see the "what if's". The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells has gotten a lot of great reviews, "Magically atmospheric, achingly romantic", and it looks to have the potential to sweep you off your feet in that romantic time travel kind of way. In the book, Greta is transported back in time, but with her same family and surrounding people. She's aware of the shift, but can she really enjoy herself? Just published this week by Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells is available right now from your local bookstore (and it's on my wish list!)!

The Thinking Woman's Guide to Readl Magic by Emily Croy Barker... Nora Fischer’s dissertation is stalled and her boyfriend is about to marry another woman.  During a miserable weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora wanders off and walks through a portal into a different world where she’s transformed from a drab grad student into a stunning beauty.  Before long, she has a set of glamorous new friends and her romance with gorgeous, masterful Raclin is heating up. It’s almost too good to be true.

Then the elegant veneer shatters. Nora’s new fantasy world turns darker, a fairy tale gone incredibly wrong. Making it here will take skills Nora never learned in graduate school.

This book sounds like a fun romp! I like the elements of magic and the fairy tale gone wrong scenario. I also would like to see how the author merges the modern day with the fantasy world. This is coming to your local bookstore August 1st and is published by Penguin.

 We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler... Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and our narrator, Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. “I spent the first eighteen years of my life defined by this one fact: that I was raised with a chimpanzee,” she tells us. “It’s never going to be the first thing I share with someone. I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you aren’t thinking of her as my sister. But until Fern’s expulsion, I’d scarcely known a moment alone. She was my twin, my funhouse mirror, my whirlwind other half, and I loved her as a sister.”

Just reading the description tugged at my heart. Don't you just want to know what happened to Fern?! Reading just a small sample of this book, the story slowly draws you in and I enjoyed the writing. Of course Karen Joy Fowler is the author of the wildly popular The Jane Austen Book Club, which swept through book clubs and put Jane Austen on the map with new readers.

What do you think of the title? I passed this by the first time I saw the title, because I thought it was a bit wordy and it didn't really compel me to open the book. I think that would be a great post one of these days - good books, not so good titles. Of course, I'm sure the title has to do with the loss of Fern, but on first sight... Anyway, We are Completely Besides Ourselves is available from your local bookstore and is published by Marian Wood Books/Putnam a division of Penguin.

So, now I'm going to stop looking at the books I am putting on my wish list and am going to start packing away the books I'm taking. I'm also packing away my Nook HD, which has a lot of books already loaded in my TBR pile. We'll have to talk about eReaders again too. It's been a while and there are even more choices including the advent of Tablets, which were not part of the discussion last time we talked digital reading. For Christmas, my hubby gave me a Nook HD, which I was pining for. I debated a long time on the Kindle Fire and the Nook HD. Finally deciding on the Nook HD because of it's size (it's definitely lighter and way thinner) and resolution. Although with Barnes & Noble hooking up with Google, there is an App that allows me to read my zillions of Kindle books now too! Best of both worlds... BUT if you are thinking of getting the Kindle Fire HD, it is on SALE on Amazon for $169 with adds for "a limited time'!

Now that I've shared what new books I found, what are you reading? What are you waiting for to be released?! I'd love to hear all about it! You can share it right here in your comment!!!

Have a great week... Suzanne